Page 59 - Hawaii: Diving, Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes and More

he Provisional Government sent mem- and the commander of military forces in United States and dated the 18th day of
T bers of the Missionary Party to Wash- Hawaii was forced to resign. Cleveland January, is not, in the opinion of the com-
ington to negotiate the annexation treaty, stated “Substantial wrong has thus been mittee, well founded in fact or in justice.”
which was signed on February 14, 1893. done which a due regard for our national After submission of the Morgan Report,
President Benjamin Harrison, who had just character as well as the rights of the injured Cleveland ended any efforts to reinstate
lost the presidential elections, promptly people requires we should endeavor to the monarchy, and commenced diplomatic
submitted it to the Senate for ratification repair the monarchy.” Cleveland further relations with the new government. He
but then an envoy from the deposed Queen stated in his 1893 State of the Union Ad- rebuffed further entreaties from the Queen
arrived in Washington and made the case dress and that, “Upon the facts developed to intervene.
that the dethroning and annexation were it seemed to me the only honorable course
illegal. for our Government to pursue was to undo n the 20th century, sugar and pineap-
the wrong that had been done by those I ple plantations fueled Hawaii’s economy
enators opposed the ratification of representing us and to restore as far as bringing an influx of Japanese, Chinese,
S the treaty and president-elect Grover practicable the status existing at the time Filipino and Portuguese immigrants. Lanai,
Cleveland commissioned an investigation of our forcible intervention.” under the leadership of James Dole, be-
into the events of the overthrow that was came known as the “Pineapple Island,” after
conducted by former Congressman James n February 26, 1894, the Morgan becoming the world’s leading exporter of
Henderson Blount. The Blount Report was O Report was submitted, contradicting pineapple. This mix of immigrant ethnici-
completed on July 17, 1893 and concluded the Blount Report and finding Stevens and ties is what makes Hawaii’s population so
that “United States diplomatic and military the US troops “not guilty” of any involve- diverse today.
representatives had abused their author- ment in the overthrow. The report asserted
ity and were responsible for the change in that, “The complaint by Liliuokalani in the
government.” Minister Stevens was recalled, protest that she sent to the President of the